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4.29.2006

After seeing all the glowing reviews of the movie United 93, I went and saw it this afternoon.
It was absolutely incredible. It was more like an experience than a movie. No over-acting. No super heroes. Just a gut wrenching re-enactment of an amazing day.
I don't think DVD or HBO will do it justice. Go see it in on the big screen - and the intensity of the audience makes it an even greater experience.

(Vince on the right. I think I've got a suit like that).
One oddity is that Matt Leinart, the USC quarterback, is still undrafted through eight picks. It is simply a fluke, but if he had declared for the draft after his junior year he would have been the #1 pic in the draft.

4.28.2006

Edit: The entire incident appears to be part of a plea bargain that has already been agreed upon (sounds like pre-trial diversion). I suspect that Florida law (or its bureaucracy) requires an arrest if formal criminal charges are filed.

I said yesterday that I had no desire to see this movie.
But Channel 8's Gary Cogill says this: "I'm stunned. United 93 is one of the most profound movie going experiences of my life. It's a film made on the highest level; re-creating, in real time, the morning of 9/11, specifically focusing on the crew and passengers on board United flight 93. "
Pretty high praise from a guy who is usually right.

From the Update:
Bridgeport won its first playoff game in more than seven years with a 3-0 win over Whitney in Crowley. Pitcher Cami Riley held Whitney to three hits while the Sissies pounded out 10 hits. The Sissies will face Graham next week as they aim for a state title under Coach Lori Lammers.
Wasn't it announced a couple of months ago that the coach would be demoted beginning next year? Yep.

SPRING, Texas - A 16-year-old Hispanic boy was beaten, sodomized and left for dead because two other teens at an unsupervised house party were offended that he tried to kiss a 12-year-old girl, authorities said Thursday.The attackers were white and shouted racial slurs "associated with being Hispanic" at the boy during the vicious 10- to 15-minute beating, Harris County Sheriff's officers said. The victim lay behind the house for more than 10 hours before he was found and someone called an ambulance.(Source)

I've been out of pocket, but there's not a whole lot going on in the news.
Perhaps today will get interesting.
Although I did see an account of a minor league baseball player throw a bat at an umpire. That was crazy.

4.27.2006

Did any of you see the news footage of the older man being released from jail after his arrest for shooting his very ill wife of 60+ years? (I've got the video saved and may be able to post it later).
It was absolutely heartbreaking.

4.26.2006

NBC Dateline's fourth installment of "To Catch A Predator" was on tonight. It basically is about ambushing guys that come over to a house to meet an under-aged girl they met on the Internet.
It is so shocking. Be so entertaining.
You have to watch it the next time it comes on.

There are probably many of you who don't even know who this one time controversial Dallas figure (and now county commissioner) is.
For those of you that do, you'll get a kick out of this photo.
(From, once again, the D Magazine Blog)

Texas Ranger Coco Cordero blew his third straight save chance this afternoon -- the second in less than 24 hours, and fifth already this season -- when the Rangers lost to Oakland.
Make that Choke-O Cordero.
(Stolen from The Ticket, but funny).

"No reasonable middle-aged woman would want to be put up there before a group of young men, turned around to show her buttocks, [and] get spanked . . . ."
The story here.
(I'd do it in a heartbeat for $1.2 million)

The Texas Lotto has dropped the "bonus ball".
But I'm more interested to see and hear TV and radio commercials featuring Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith promoting the new Lotto. (They do a horrible acting job referring to a "comeback"). How much did that cost Texas?
By the way, the odds of winning a Lotto jackpot will go from 1 in about 48 million to about 1 in 25.8 million.

From the D Magazine Blog:
NEW CLASSIC COUNTRY RADIO STATION
Lone Star 1190 promises to play Waylon, Merle, Reba, Willie, and the Man in Black. Remember "Moby in the Morning"? Yup, he'll be your morning host. Remember Fast Eddie Coyle? Middays. Now you know.

I heard a rumor the Dallas Stars were down 0-2 in the playoffs. I know one guy in Decatur who cares.
As I write this, a Texas Ranger pitcher is staring at a batter, winding up, no, wait....the batter stepped out of the batter's box, back to the wind up, no, wait......it's a throw to first base just to keep the runner honest. Kill me now.
I have no idea when the Dallas Mavericks play again.
All of the foregoing isn't is interesting as this Saturday when I hear, "Houston is on the clock".

The Southern Baptist Convention will probably have a chance to vote on a resolution encouraging Baptists to withdraw their children from public schools.
The resolution says public schools "continue to adopt and implement curricula and policies teaching that the homosexual lifestyle is acceptable" and that Christian alternatives to public schools are "desperately needed immediately by orphans, children of single parents and the disadvantaged."
Huh?
Those folks could probably use a little cash. But I doubt there will be a resolution towards that end.

The list is here.
I'll save you some time: The top Dallas ZIP was 75225, and it's way down at No. 285. (It's also the only Texas ZIP to make the out of 500.)
Texas real estate seems really cheap all of a sudden.

The Movie: Walk The Line
Good?: Yeah, it is
Great?: I wouldn't go that far
Interesting Tidbit: The movie's suggestion that Elvis was indirectly responsible for Johnny Cash's speed (the drug) addiction
Interesting Tidbit #2: That Cash, Elvis, and Jerry Lee Lewis all stayed in the same Tyler motel at the same time during the early part of their careers

Former President Bill Clinton, left, looks up at his portrait after Lawrence M. Small, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, right, helped him remove the drape Monday, April 24, 2006, at the Smithsonian Castle Building in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

I wonder what this does to one's mind. I wonder what I would do. I wonder what regrets I would have:
Dallas City Council member James Fantroy confirmed Monday that he is suffering from inoperable cancer in both of his kidneys. Mr. Fantroy, 67, who was first elected to represent southern Dallas' District 8 in 2000, has been on dialysis for five years because of kidney failure.
(Source)

From another Blog:
Fort Worth native and Burleson High grad Kelly Clarkson turns 24 today. Clarkson not only pocketed $1 million and a recording contract for her American Idol victory over four years ago, she set a standard that no other Idol contestant has come close to matching. Clarkson's two albums have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and produced five Top 10 singles in the U.S.

I don't know why I always look at the Walter Scott Question and Answer section on the inside cover of this magazine (which is shoved into the sunday paper).
The questions that ask for research answers seem silly. I mean, would you write to a magazine for an answer knowing (1) the chances of your question being selected are remote and (2) you'll have to wait at least three months for the answer and (3) there is something called the Internet?
For example, this week there was this question from Tad North of Chattanooga, TN: "After the rap group Three 6 Mafia won an Oscar for the song 'It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp', I heard people talking about their 'grilles'. What does that mean?"
You can't figure that out on your own? And, Tad, it's grillz, bruther.

FORT WORTH - A 49-year-old Wise County man has been identified as the worker who was killed Saturday in an explosion at a natural gas well in the 3600 block of Lon Stephenson Road in Forest Hill.
Robert Gayan of Paradise was one of four people working on the TXO Energy owned well when the well head blowout happened, about 7:45 a.m. Saturday. None of the other workers was seriously injured.
Hundreds of Forest Hill residents were evacuated from their homes while emergency personnel secured the well head and recovered Gayan’s body from the site.